China’s crushing overcapacity risks inflaming trade tensions as well as swamping the country’s companies with debt, the European Chamber of Commerce in Beijing has warned.
“They can’t outgrow this problem any more,” J?rg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber, said in Beijing. “Politicians need to realise that [Chinese] overcapacity leads to job losses, which leads to protectionism in Europe.”
Six out of eight industries studied by the chamber, ranging from glass to paper to steel, show signs that factories are operating at even lower rates than they were in 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. In the industries studied, Chinese companies compete with large European businesses.